Landscaping around a patio, a flowerbed, a deck, a pool or a building can enhance the appearance of those features and draw attention to them. It can also generally provide for a serene and relaxing environment. Landscaping can encompass many things, such as, the addition of a lighting scheme, a stone or brick wall, fencing, a water fountain, flowers, trees, shrubs, or a sound system.
Landscape speakers are commonplace and well known, but recently speakers have been developed that do not have the paper cones, instead they have a complete plastic structure that is waterproof. Indeed, the use of such landscape speakers in an outdoor environment has grown in popularity as outdoor spaces are increasingly used as an extension of living space. For both functional and decorative purposes, outdoor landscape speakers are designed to appear as rocks, planters, pedestals, furniture and even animals, that blend into landscaping. Often, such outdoor landscape speakers are placed along pathways, driveways, sidewalks, patios, plant beds, pools and spas.
Outdoor sound systems typically comprise a plurality of strategically located speakers connected by individual speaker wires, one wire to each speaker in the stereo system. Typically, the speaker wires are run under the eaves of the house or other structure or are buried in the ground in such a manner that each outdoor speaker is electrically connected to the speaker output of the stereo system.
Home and business landscaping is a popular project and pastime with home and business owners. They often hire a landscaping company to do an expensive design and implement a plan to enhance the land surrounding a home or building. These systems are often too complicated for private individuals to work on themselves. Instead of contracting a landscaping company, homeowners and business owners can do the work themselves but the problems arise when the products available are not dependable.
Although there has been a substantial increase in the types of outdoor sound systems in light of strong consumer demand for such systems, the current sound systems available today contain a number of features that limit their utility and market acceptance. What is needed is a fully integrated and flexible outdoor sound system that permits the uses of common elements to reduce the costs of installation and a reduction of the lengths of wires linking each speaker back to the stereo system, along with the capability of increasing the number of speakers.
Numerous innovations for a landscape speaker system have been provided in the prior art that are described as follows. Even though these innovations may be suitable for the specific individual purposes to which they address, they differ from the present application as hereinafter contrasted. The following is a summary of those prior art patents most relevant to the landscape speaker system at hand, as well a description outlining the difference between the features of the present design and those of the prior art.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,580,361 of Charles E. Butcher describes an integrated outdoor lighting and sound systems comprising a plurality of outdoor landscaping lighting units, a wiring cable interconnecting the plurality of outdoor landscaping lighting units, a source of low-voltage energy connected to said wiring cable and a plurality of speaker assemblies, each of the speaker assemblies including a speaker, an audio amplifier for amplifying sound to the speaker, the audio amplifier further including leads connected to the wiring cable for supplying electrical power to the audio amplifier, and a battery storage electrically connected to the wiring cable for storing electrical energy and for supplying the electrical energy to the audio amplifier.
This patent describes an integrated outdoor lighting and sound system that is very involved. These systems usually require an electrician to install them and a permit, due to the fact of the large amount of electrical wiring involved. They are generally expensive and cannot easily be sold at a discount hardware store.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0126860 of Leon R. Sievers discloses an audio output device that is configured to transmit an audio signal to an external power amplifier. The transmission of the audio signal can be accomplished by means of a wireless transmitter or standard audio cable. The power amplifier, a low voltage power supply, and in certain embodiments a wireless receiver are commonly housed in a weatherproof enclosure. In one embodiment of the invention, the amplified audio signal and low-voltage power provided by the low voltage power supply are transmitted by means of a common cable to a lighting and sound unit.
This patent describes another lighting and sound configuration that is very involved and does not have the benefits derived by using the unique wing nut cable connectors disclosed in this application.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,066,613 of Tejaswi Vishwamitra tells of a sound and light apparatus including a lamp and a speaker. The sound and light apparatus can be used indoors or outdoors to enhance a landscape plan or an interior design plan. Multiple sound and light apparatuses can be used to further enhance the ambiance of an indoor or outdoor location.
This patent describes a specific sound and light apparatus, but is not incorporating the electronic sound system.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,679,845 of Giovanni Geloso describes a light unit incorporating, above, a sound distribution unit separate from the lamp and protected by an upper cap designated to also form the sound box of the aforementioned sound distribution system. The elements are assembled in such a way as to permit easy access to the sound distribution system independently of the lamp.
This patent describes lighting combined with a sound distribution system in such a way as to achieve simultaneously the combined effects of lighting and broadcasting music and/or announcements. It has been designed primarily for commercial applications.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,345,685 of Leigh D. Wells discloses a loudspeaker system for providing a self-contained light and sound system for entertainment. The loudspeaker system includes a loudspeaker system comprised of a housing unit attached to a cage comprising of a plurality of rods and two rim members by means of a plurality of fasteners attached to the top rim member. There is a tubular enclosure inside of the cage which is at least part transparent to varying degrees of opacity, sandwiched between the bottom rim member and the housing unit with countersunk gaskets to seal the tubular enclosure. The bottom rim member has mounted into it a loudspeaker driver and legs to elevate the loudspeaker system. When the unit is detached from the top rim member of the cage the transparent tubular enclosure is released. The housing unit contains a light emitting source, additional speakers and other associated electrical components. There are detachable audio and electrical connections between the housing unit and cage. The light created in the housing unit passes through a lens at the bottom of the housing unit into the tubular enclosure where a deflector/diffuser is situated at the rear of the loudspeaker driver deflecting the light onto and through the tubular enclosure walls.
This patent describes another loudspeaker system incorporating speakers but generally directed towards commercial applications. It describes a specific sound and light apparatus, but does not deal with the electronic sound system.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,769,509 of Ronald Paul Harwood describes a speaker assembly that is provided for enclosure within a structural pole. The speaker assembly includes a sub-plate adapted to be affixed, adjacent to an internal cavity formed in a fixed end of the structural pole. A speaker is mounted to the sub-plate and oriented such that acoustical vibrations provided by the speaker are directed toward an underlying support surface of the structural pole. A resonating chamber member is oriented within the structural pole internal cavity and has an open end mounted adjacent to the speaker. The resonating chamber member is sized to match the speaker
This patent describes a speaker pole. It describes a specific sound and light apparatus, but does not deal with the electronic sound system.
None of these previous efforts, however, provides the benefits attendant with the present landscape speaker system. The present design achieves its intended purposes, objects and advantages over the prior art devices through a new, useful and unobvious combination of method steps and component elements, with the use of a minimum number of functioning parts, at a reasonable cost to manufacture, by employing readily available materials.
In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of the landscape speaker system in detail it is to be understood that this system is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangement, of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The landscape speaker system is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. In addition, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present design. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent construction insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present application.